Eric Clapton is focus of TV special

Eric Clapton is the focus of a TV special to be aired on May 20, tying in with the launch of latest album I Still Do.

Entitled I Still Do: An Intimate Discussion About Rock, the Blues and Shepherd’s Pie, the show will be broadcast on VH1 Classic at 8pm then MTV Live an hour later.

The record is Clapton’s first collaboration with producer Glyn Johns since 1977’s groundbreaking Slowhand release.

The guitarist recently told Classic Rock: “I gave him a call and said, ‘Let’s go out for a bite to eat just to prove that we’re still mates.’ During that dinner I said we should do something, to celebrate the coming-up of our 40th anniversary. So we booked some time and went in the studio.”

Explaining the hour-long TV show’s light-hearted title, Clapton says: “Even now, I don’t link pain and suffering with blues music. I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, it’s depressing,’ or. ‘Doesn’t it get you down?’

“I find it enlightening. I get the opposite effect from it.”

He released a lyric video for Can’t Let You Do It this week, and he’ll launch another track, Spiral, next week.

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Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.